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AMASHIWI

"Culture is the heritage of us all. some may be more interested than others in the treasures of the past, but no one can fail to take a pride in his country's participation in the story of mankind, as represented in carvings, sculpture, music, paintings and the other arts. And there is a personal commitment to this, for no man can really say he is alone: we are all joined through our identity, with the cultures which are part of the mainstream of life"

- Simon Kapwepwe, Zambian Independence Freedom Fighter

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm"- Winston Churchill

"Try to be the rainbow in someone else's cloud"- Maya Angelou

"Your time is limited so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinion drown out your inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition"- Steve Jobs

Monday, 9 December 2013

Y Zed Series: Barefeet Theatre - A ROARing Good Time Part I

This post was originally meant to be posted a week after event, then life got away with me. This is how I felt at the time even though you are reading this months on.

The first time I saw a Barefeet performance was last year at Manda Hill during their Christmas performance of the Snow Queen. I had heard a lot about them, and they did not disappoint. So when I was give the opportunity to have access to them before and during their ROAR Festival, I jumped at the chance to find out more about what they do.

I was immediately enchanted. I met Bernard, Victor and Amos during my first visit to their Thorne Park premises, all of whom benefited from Barefeet as children, and as young men have chosen to pay it forward by training to mentor kids who are growing up as they did.

I then got previews of the acrobatic tricks they were to perform. You can see all of them on my YouTube Channel.

I then was kindly invited to the Barefeet Theatre ROAR launch at the Intercontinental. The highlight of the evening was the Children's Council performance: The Funeral that they would perform again at the Festival during the week. I happened to be dressed for the occassion in mostly black and was happy to be in attendance. Here in Zambia, we have allowed ourselves to fall into a terrible malaise. We mosey along, complacent about the daily inefficiencies, the lack of standards, and abuse thrown at us due to people no longer caring about the way they comport themselves personally or professionally. I am constantly taking umbrage with something or someone and feel like a crazy old lady as everyone around me seems to be completely unaffected. We have become so numb and unfeeling, accepting mediocrity as the norm. Which is why I was refreshed and invigorated by these young guns, daring to speak up and out about what is wrong with their country and tell us exactly what should be done about it. Here is what I tweeted as I was watching:

Also got my first glimpse of Randy McClaren, the Dub and Reggae Poet from Jamaica, who was part of the cultural exchange element that Barefeet always include in their yearly Youth Arts Festivals. He really got me hooked on the idea of Creative Activism, a term I had not heard of, but really should have, as it encapsulates a professional goal in life. That is part of what Project Cascade is all about (over half the team was in attendance at Launch to show support). Video of him in Part 2.

Lwanga claims she had the virgin punch and I believe her because I think this is what caused the wonky picture - a whole other kind of inebriation: punch drunk love he he he he (I couldn't help myself ;}):

About MbA

Ngosa Chungu is a Stanford, London School of Economics and University of Southern California alum who is committed to positively changing the face of the African continent, its people and its culture in global media. She has worked in Silicon Valley and Hollywood, for the BBC in London and helped set up the Leadership, Entrepreneurship and African Studies curriculum at the African Leadership Academy in South Africa. Her professional passions include creating quality proudly Zambian and positively African media content for on and offline platforms. She uses blogging and social media to also personally contribute to the creation of African content online.

Currently she is promoting her first documentary film, e18hteam (eighteam), about the Zambian National Team: the Chipolopolo's triumph at AFCON 2012 in Gabon after the country suffered a terrible loss in 1993 due to a tragic plan crash taking the lives of 18 of the then football team in the same place. For more information go to http://www.facebook.com/e18hteam and http://twitter.com/e18hteam